


A Room Without a View

by CMackenzie



Category: Veronica Mars (Movie 2014), Veronica Mars (TV), Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-28
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2018-09-20 12:52:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9491693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CMackenzie/pseuds/CMackenzie
Summary: Wallace visits Veronica in New York





	

“Home sweet home,” Veronica used her key to lock the door behind them. For additional security, she twisted the rim latch, slid the deadbolt home, and then fastened the door chain. Instead of making him feel safer, it had the opposite effect.

“Where’s the rest of it?” 

“Poor, struggling law student here, remember?” She crossed to the middle of the hardwood floor. “Let me give you the grand tour.” 

Veronica beckoned him forward. He took the four steps to the center of the room and she announced, “Living room.”

Moving behind him, she put her hands on his shoulders and turned him to face the front door. Next to the door was a short —he couldn’t really call it a hallway— indent that led to the bathroom and next to that was a postage stamp sized, galley kitchen. 

She pivoted them to the left so they were facing two double-doors. To their left was a tiny alcove with a desk. It was sagging beneath the weight of a stack of thick, heavy law books. Veronica pointed toward it. “Office and…wait for it” —her hands dropped from his shoulders and she crossed to the first set of doors— “The bedroom.” 

The ‘bedroom’ was a closet with a Murphy bed. “Amazing, right?” She grinned. “Aw, don’t be jealous, BFF, I’m totally going to let you sleep on it tonight.”

“And you pay how much to live here?”

“A mere pittance for all this luxury.” She waved her arm over the shabby sofa that forgot to be chic and the three tall windows with a view of the building across the street. “It was eighteen hundred dollars a month, but, with my excellent negotiation skills, I got it for only seventeen fifty.”

Wallace shook his head and sat on the butter-yellow sofa under the windows. What the couch lacked in looks it certainly made up for in comfort. He felt a little less bad about stealing Veronica’s ‘bedroom’ for the night. “So how’s life in the big city? I miss you, girl.”

“I miss you too.” She curled into the opposite corner of the sofa. “I don’t really believe you’re actually here. I’m afraid I’m talking to a figment of my overtaxed brain.”

“I know your imagination’s good, but you could never conjure up all the perfection that is Wallace Fennel in the flesh.”

Veronica rolled her eyes. “I see without me around there’s nobody keeping your ego in check.”

“Oh, I still visit my mother.”

“Well tell her she’s falling down on the job.”

The tired desk was directly in his line of sight. A French memo board was mounted to the wall behind it; photos were tucked beneath the crisscrossed ivory ribbons. Wallace smiled at the one of him and Veronica from the Homecoming Dance – him in his tux and her in a red, strapless dress. His smile faltered when he saw the picture directly beneath it.

She started to turn her head to see what he was looking at and he quickly asked, “How’s law school?”

“Busy. I got permission to take a sixteen-point semester and I’m regretting it.” She rested her head on the back of the couch. “There’s only so much corporate income taxation and banking law a person can take.”

“Just the names of those classes sound exhausting.”

She gave him a worn smile. “So… what’s new in Neptune?” Her eyes flicked away and Wallace knew what she really wanted even if she’d never directly ask.

Their regular emails and phone calls kept her up-to-date on what was happening in his life, ditto for Mac, and Keith called her every Sunday. The only person she wanted to know about was the same one smirking at him from behind her desk- the puka-shell wearing jackass.

Normally, he could sidestep the conversation because he had no idea what Logan was doing. He’d tell her about students featured in the Where Are They Now section of the Neptune Navigator until she grew bored, which didn’t take long since they weren’t the ones she cared about. This time was different.

Wallace sighed. The sooner he gave her the news, the sooner they could be done with the subject of Logan Echolls. “He’s a pilot in the Navy; he flies fighter jets.”

Logan, fighter jets, Navy – the words still didn’t seem to go together in his mind. When he’d first heard the news, Wallace had laughed sure that it was a joke.

Veronica sat upright, shoulders tense, gaze narrowed. “My Logan?”

Wallace winced at her use of the word ‘my’ and nodded. “It was in the Register.” He didn’t want to tell her why it was in the paper, but he knew she’d find out soon enough. Bonnie DeVille’s new boyfriend was juicy gossip. “He’s dating Carrie Bishop.”

She withdrew, a mask of indifference slipping over her face. “What say I take you to dinner? Pisticci’s has great Italian food and live jazz on Sundays.” A forced smile. “And I will provide scintillating conversation, of course.”

“Well…” She was sad and Wallace didn’t want to leave her. “You said you needed to study tonight and I sorta promised… would you care if Piz joined us?”

“No” —she blinked— “Dinner with Piz sounds…” She stood, her eyes wandering to the photo of Logan. “Just gimme a minute to change.”

Wallace watched her blindly grab some clothes from the closet without the bed and then retreat to the bathroom. He wanted to rip the smirking photo to shreds.


End file.
